Heed Sachin's words of wisdom

[SachDan]

Heed Sachin's words of wisdom By R.Mohan Thursday 15th January 2009

To get a 'Mumbai duck' must have been a new experience for Sachin Tendulkar. It was not so much the lack of atmosphere at a neutral venue for a Ranji final as a very good ball that got the master batsman out. The issue does, however, remain about whether such programming of the premier inter-state championships is good for domestic cricket. The scheduling is not new, neither in the Ranji nor in the Duleep.Neutral venues have been in and out of fashion several times, in India as well as abroad. Sachin had a point when he stressed in Chennai during the semi-final that a cricketer needed to grow on the home and away system to toughen up. A player must know what it is to play at an away venue where the crowd can be hostile, Tendulkar argued. There's more than a grain of truth in that. But it is the home advantage squeezed out in the preparation of the pitch to suit the home team's that the concept of home matches took its biggest hit. The art of preparation of pitches is an inexact practice and the idea of making pitches suit a certain team have often boomeranged. I remember a final between Bombay and Madras when a Chepauk Bunsen burner was laid out. It was the worst kind of surface for batsmen while spin bowlers were licking their lips in anticipation even before the toss. Vijay Manjrekar who had flown out to watch the opening day's play had some words of advice for Padmakar Shivalkar about how to bowl on the turner and the spinner, in return, routed the Madras batsmen so quickly that the final was over in two days and a ball - yes, one was enough to get V.V. Kumar out on the third morning. There was another famous final for which Delhi laid out a flat batting strip to suit the home team's strengths and Mohinder Amarnath promptly lost the toss. Karnataka piled on a little over 700 runs. To the credit of Jimmy's fighting unit that was Delhi, the team fought on and on a surface that never deteriorated for days, seized the first innings lead on the sixth morning. Making a flat track was obviously better for the game than a turner. But teams don't always see it that way, particularly the lesser ones who think they can beat Goliath by fixing the track. More often than not, such tactics backfire, or they simply bring a bad name to the winning side, with the complaints of bigger teams certain to get a hearing from the authorities. Pitch-fixing is less rampant in days in which a national pitch policy is in place and a central curator figure (Daljit Singh) is there to advise the BCCI on what action is to be taken in cases of obvious under-preparation. The problem with neutral venues was the surfaces were too batsmen-friendly because a groundsman would always try to earn a good name by laying out a nice track. Sachin's argument about cricketers getting better exposure if they stand up to the hostile atmosphere at away games has far more validity than other arguments over home team advantage. Also, a team winning away feels its achievement is twice as laudable if the victory comes against the odds in the lion's lair. To accommodate Sachin's thinking, the rules will be changed again before the next season. The Board would have to respect the voice of the world's senior player who will soon be into his 20th season in international cricket. The voice of wisdom is not to be ignored, more so when what it says is most logical.

http://www.espnstar.com/opinion/columnists/column/item61776/

[Mr. Wicket]

Tendulkar is right. Thank god that senior, respected players will play domestic cricket and seek to improve it like this.

[Ram]

Just the prospect of knockout matches played in neutral venues seems to improper. But Salil has a point;

All KO matches are supposed to be in neutral venues. Else we'd have situations where home teams would over/underprepare pitches to suit them and kill a fair contest.

[Mr. Wicket]

This is also the risk in the English system. What they've done is retain home/away games, while penalising teams who manipulate pitches. I do remember Northants not too long ago being docked several points and fined for preparing a diabolical turner designed for Panesar. Might not be a bad idea to adopt this with some modifications, as it's probably the lesser of the two evils and it's painful to see matches in neutral territory with home supporters not having the chance to follow their teams.